Charlie Sheen has revealed his biggest regret in life is his many tattoos.

The Two and a Half Men actor declared "HIV is easier to deal with" than body art during a frank on-stage interview with fellow actor David Duchovny in New York City this week.

Promoting his new memoir, The Book of Sheen, Charlie, 60, insisted his tattoos were one of the decisions he most regretted in life.

"It isn't the one that I'm supposed to say," he quipped. "F**king tattoos. Sorry. No, I mean, no s**t. Can't take a pill and make your f**king tattoos disappear!"

The actor, who is HIV-positive and a recovering drug and alcohol abuser, described his inkwork as "terrible".

"That's such a bad, terrible, stupid decision," he said. "They could have been like little stick figures and really small and like, maybe like down here ... they're just f**king everywhere."

Charlie added he had commissioned some of the tattoos in a bid to conceal scarring from his years of intravenous drug use.

"I was trying to be sneaky, but I said at one point in the book that I'm gonna permanently need longer sleeves or get a bigger tattoo," he said. "I thought it was a cool attempt, at least, of camouflage."